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Get up-to-date information on Scotland's fishing river levels, catches and local services while you're on the move.

An angler shore fishing

Looking along the bridge across the River Ayr to the town of Ayr

The harbour at Girvan, South Ayrshire

A woman learning fly casting and fly fishing with an instuctor

Ayrshire & Arran has some brilliant fishing on river and lochs, and on the sea and shore. In fact so good and so varied is the fishing in and around the towns of Troon and Ayr that there really is little more an avid angler could wish for.

Salmon fishing

Ayrshire has a wide range of productive salmon rivers to choose from. The northern rivers of Irvine and Garnock are gentle flowing meandering waterways while the southern upland rivers of Girvan and Stinchar are more wild in nature. There is also some excellent fishing in the river Ayr and Doon in the centre of the region.

The best of the salmon run begins from mid June with the rivers Stinchar and Doon usually said to be the best in the region. If you get rain then September and October are considered the prime months but August can also be good.

Trout Fishing

There is marvellous trout fishing in all the region’s main rivers and lochs such as the River Ayr, Kilbirnie Loch, and Barrcraigs Reservoir. Trout fisheries are also prominent across Ayrshire & Arran offering excellent facilities often with professional instruction providing an ideal introduction to angling.

A good place to start is Cowans Law Fishery near Moscow, East Ayrshire. They offer excellent bait and fly-fishing for trout on a well-stocked 4 acre loch. Fishing is available all year round with permits and the loch is filled with tiger, rainbow, blue and brown trout.

Coarse fishing

There is a patchwork of small to medium-sized lochs across the region. Almost all of them have healthy populations of hard fighting esox. You will find pike and coarse fishing is permitted all year at Kilbirnie Loch. Eglinton Country Park loch is a great coarse fishing venue with good stocks of bream, roach, rudd, perch, pike. Catches of carp and tench have been reported on occasion.

Sea angling

With miles after mile of breathtaking coastline Ayrshire & Arran is a spectacular destination for any sea angler. Excellent shore and boat fishing can be found in the Firth of Clyde, the Sound of Bute and in the Clyde Estuary around the Isle of Cumbrae. Skelmorlie can produce dogfish and shoals of makeral can be caught from any pier with a depth of water during the summer months.